#是站住？走？别走？趴下？长跪不起？还是......

这个精神分裂信号灯坐落于伦敦 canary Wharf 商业区的一个环形交通枢纽口，半个英里外看上去，它就像是一个挂满彩灯的树。信号灯树由一个高达28尺的钢柱支撑，总共有75个信号指示集，按照自己的固有频率“指示”信号。初来咋到的人们见到信号灯总要膜拜一番，而很多刚学车的人见到这信号灯总会觉得——信号灯看不懂啊，学车无望。

这货到底是哪只魂淡做的？！哪个交通协管员想出了这么奇葩的点子？！实际上，这只是法国艺术家 Pierre Vivant 的一件公共艺术作品。信号灯树是由城市公众艺术委员会安装在这里的，初衷之一是为了代替一棵受污染而枯死的树。当时，Vivant称，他的“信号灯树”巧妙地模仿了伦敦街区周围梧桐树的景观，灯光无穷的变化方式亦折射出周围商业区永不停歇的金融活动。

设计师本想使信号灯根据伦敦证劵交易所的交易状况闪烁的，之后由一个简单的微控制器来代替控制。据报道，曾有相当多的司机上了这个假信号灯的当。而这个路口也曾因此获得2005年“最佳环形交通枢纽奖”。

当地市政管理机构曾在此处重新植树代替信号灯，但最终还是答应把灯重新安装回来。很多人（初来咋到的司机除外）早已对这个奇葩的信号灯产生了感情。

#小姿势：
世界上最差的环形交通枢纽坐落于英国斯温登的A4312。那里信号灯的最大作用就是迷惑司机，连同错综复杂的道路引导司机走上歧路，永不回头。

This schizophrenic traffic light, located in a roundabout in London's Canary Wharf business district, will provoke traffic headaches from half a mile away. It has 75 lit-up signals, all blinking in their own bumptious syncopation, supported by a 28-foot-tall perplexity of iron stalks. Running into this jungle of traffic-control overgrowth must be every student driver's hairiest nightmare.

So which evil genius of a traffic engineer is responsible for it? Actually, none: It's a work of public art fashioned by France's Pierre Vivant (and brought to my attention by reader Tim Hanrahan. Thanks, Tim!). The city's public-arts commission installed "Traffic Light Tree" in 1998 to replace a plane tree that was, incredibly, "choking to death as a result of pollution." At the time, Vivant said that his traffic complication "imitates the natural landscape of the adjacent London plane trees, while the changing pattern of the lights reveals and reflects the never ending rhythm of the surrounding domestic, financial and commercial activities."

The idea was to have the lights blipping along to trades made on the London Stock Exchange, but that was dropped in favor of a simpler computer-controlled pattern. There is a hard-to-believe report of drivers initially being confused by the imposing frankenlight; what is known as fact is that it won a 2005 competition for "best-looking" roundabout. (The worst roundabout, if you want to know, is one located on the A4312 in Swindon, which "leaves drivers in a spin, often causing them to drive in the wrong direction.")

A local council uprooted the tree recently but has promised to put it back, as it is much belovedby the people. Here are a few more views of the Gordian Knot of traffic lights: